


Beautiful World, Cruel World

by LavworthMyWay



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 05:31:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8877829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LavworthMyWay/pseuds/LavworthMyWay
Summary: When the battle against Leliel headed south, Shinji found himself sucked into the Angel and transported into a world where instead of giant bio-mechanical beings he fought with swords and manoeuvre gears. As he struggled to survive in this bizarre world with little idea how to return to his own, he started to learn to take care of himself and perhaps, to even accept himself.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a notice before you proceed to the story: Kaworu was already introduced as the Fifth Child because reasons. You'll see later on. Besides that the story should be similar to the TV series.  
> The main cast of Attack on Titan are still in their trainee days.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

Sneak up.

Aim.

Shoot.

Simple as that. He's fought all those Angels before. He should be used to this already.

But then the bizarre ball of swirling black and white had dissipated into thin air, and the shadow had spread like wildfire and swallowed him up.

His screams drowned out everyone else's cries of his name. He barely noticed Asuka's yelling and Kaworu's futile attempt to reach for him.

The cold white void pressed up to him. Shinji couldn't feel anything around him but he felt suffocated. Shutting off the synchronisation to conserve battery life, Shinji proceeded to curl into himself to conserve his own energy.

_ Well, this sucks _ . He thought to himself. That was silly of him to want to prove himself just now. “Combat is a man’s job” his ass. Why did he have to get riled up by Asuka? Rei would have shook off her challenges without even sparing a glance. Kaworu would have responded with a smile and if he was feeling up to it, a passive and clever remark.

Just as his emotions were about to overwhelm him, he noticed a shift in his surroundings. It was meek, almost unnoticeable, but in this space of nothingness any change was amplified. Starting up his synchronisation, he scanned the area for the source and found that it was right below him. 

Before he could figure out what it actually was, the space below him opened up, white peeling back to reveal green. Squinting, he tried to make out what they were when he sensed a violent tug down towards the green space. For a split second, Shinji panicked that an unseen and uncontrollable force was pulling him to dangerous unknown.

But as Unit 01 was yanked out of the white void, Shinji spotted the spread of blue skies stretching across his field of vision.

_ Oh _ . He thought with muted realisation. The green space was just an enormous plain. And the unseen and uncontrollable force which was pulling him had all along been gravity. This reassured him tremendously, although he knew clearly Unit 01 was not designed for aerial combat. But if the Evangelion could survive nuclear blasts and a high energy particle beam which  _ vaporised mountain _ s, Unit 01 should be able to survive a fall, even by a height of a few thousand metres. It'll hurt like hell and Unit 01 might suffer some damages, but he'll live.

The ground was quickly closing in on him, and he braced himself for impact.

He crashed straight into the earth with a resounding  _ boom _ , and pain erupted all over him.

_ Yep _ , Shinji thought weakly,  _ Hurts like hell. _

He stayed in that position to let the pounding pain fade, and once he felt fine enough he got onto his feet.

Looking in front of him, he saw nothing beyond the green fields and clutter of trees. In the distance, silhouettes approached him. At one glance Shinji estimated forty. They probably came to investigate the source of the destruction. Shinji stole a glance at the ground and winced slightly at the enormous crater he made. He looked back up at the silhouettes, but felt something was amiss. The people were trudging too clumsily towards him. And though they were still a good twenty metres away from him, they were too tall to be considered normal. 

The gnawing suspicion refused to go away, and Shinji zoomed in on them with Unit 01’s camera.

Stark naked they were, the humanlike creatures lacked any genitalia and bore unsettling expressions.

It hit him at that moment that they were not... human.

Baffled disgust crept at Shinji. He didn’t know how to deal with these creatures. Angels were one thing, at least he knew he had to destroy them. But these look too similar to humans for him to be comfortable hurting them.

A loud familiar beep resonated within the plug, distracting Shinji from his current task.

_ 00:59:01 _

A rush of urgency gripped him as he looked for any place he could take cover. 

Twisting from side to side, Shinji desperately sought for any refuge. 

About ten metres behind him, a tall stone wall stood out amongst the landscape, its dull grey shade contrasting the bright green. Seeing there was no other choice, Shinji ran to the walls. Its height reached Unit 01’s waist. Buildings were packed within the walls. Shinji didn't know if he should jump into the city without knowing what he's getting himself into. For all he know, the city was a greater threat than those grotesque beings.

_ 00:35:56 _

Screw it. Gritting his teeth, he gripped the top of the walls for leverage and propped himself up. He looked down and noticed people scattering away from the vicinity like ants. There wasn't much space between the houses for him to land. He doubt he could run through the city like he could in Tokyo-3.

_ 00:19:32 _

But it was protection anyway. He threw his legs over the wall. A faint surge of screaming reached his ears as he landed squarely on the ground, fortunately avoiding any buildings. The earth trembled. He almost lost his footing but he caught himself just in time.

_ 00:00:00 _

A sigh of relief blew past Shinji's lips. The Eva shut down, shrouding him in darkness. He leaned back against the seat, gaze sliding to the intercom.

A few seconds past and his eyes were still trained on it. A sense of oddity clouded Shinji and he didn't know why felt something was amiss. It was as if he was waiting for Misato's instructions---

Realisation dawned upon him. As his thoughts caught up and the rush of adrenaline subsided, Shinji started to assess his situation more clearly. Of course the familiar and expected static flow of commands did not come. He wasn't in Tokyo-3 anymore. The Angel somehow transported him to an unknown part of the world. No, he doubt this was the same world he was in. Those naked, grotesque beings were nothing he had seen before. And this was something worth noting, considering he fought extraterrestrial, omnipotent beings on practically a daily basis.

Bizarre as it might sound, he suspected he was transported to a whole different world.

But nothing could be confirmed and no problem could be solved if he chose to confine himself here. Activating the plug ejection, the plug popped out of Unit 01's neck. Reaching for the hatch, he pushed it open. Light bled into the plug and he squinted at the invasive brightness as he poked a head out.

Standing on the wall facing Unit 01 were people in matching uniforms, swords unsheathed and pointed at him. Their faces were scrunched up in aggressive terror as they glared up at Shinji. The pilot of Unit 01 stared back, frightened and confused. He shrunk an inch back into the plug in instinctive defence.

One of them at the front shouted at Shinji in a flurry of indiscernible words. A foreign language. He should have figured, judging from the Western complexions of all of the armed people. Soldiers, he presumed. He hadn't seen anyone using swords in a while. Not that it helped with his fear. He didn't understand them. He didn't know how to communicate with them. He didn't know why he was here. Were they going to kill him?

The man's face etched a deeper frown when Shinji failed to respond and opted to return a shaken expression at him. The crinkles nudged out of the corner of the man’s eyes when he narrowed them. He demanded again in a thunderous voice, but it did nothing to quell Shinji's frightened confusion. So he did the next thing he could think of.

"I'm sorry."

He spoke.

The hostility on the man's face disappeared and was replaced with puzzlement. Shinji supposed it was better than being angry. It was a good start. So he continued.

"I don't think I understand you."

It seemed to confirm the man's suspicion and he turned to his fellow soldiers who wore matching expressions of befuddlement. But then he, whom Shinji assumed to be their commander, barked some orders and they looked solemn and prepared. Panic swept through Shinji, whose mind darted to the worst case scenario which involved him being gruesomely attacked and killed, but then a handful of them turned from him and started running to the edge of the wall.

And, to Shinji's shock, leapt off the wall.

Shinji gasped in horror and craned his neck to see the horrifying scene, but to be surprised when what looked to be wires shot out of hips and they soared off.

It's like they had wings, Shinji noted numbly as he watched them swing past buildings with ease and agility.

Looking back at the remaining soldiers, Shinji searched for any hint of matching surprise, only to find the commander’s bemused smirk directed at him. So it was only he who found this flying thing shocking. The boy frowned. What kind of world was this?

From the corner of his eye, a man leaned over to a fellow soldier and muttered something into his ear. Whatever it was, he didn't take it too favourable and hissed back in irritation. Out of curiosity, Shinji strained an ear to catch his words. It was all a blur, a confusing string of babble until a single word stood out like light in the darkness. Like a sudden breath of air in the depths of the sea. It was all he could see and think of.

"... _ dummkopf _ ..."

Shinji could laugh. German. They were speaking German. How blind was he to not recognise it?

For once in his life Shinji felt an immense wave of relief at the sound of Asuka's favourite insult in her native tongue.

"Guten tag?" He tried.

Conversations died down as they collectively turned their heads to him in surprise. As if the prospect of the strange foreign boy who fell from the sky was speaking their language astonished them. A flurry of what he now recognises as German spilled out of them. It threw him off almost instantaneously. He had almost zero grasp of the language except what little he learnt from the television and the casual remarks Asuka threw at him. Repeating what Asuka said to him was a definite no-no. Insulting wary soldiers was the last thing he wanted to achieve in this tense situation.

A hint of nostalgia tugged at him as he faintly recalled that one time they fought the Angel out in the sea. After being forced into Unit 02 in that bright red plug suit (Shinji shuddered at the thought it was  _ Asuka’s _ ), Asuka exclaimed at him over her shoulder to think in German when they were in Unit 02. And the first thing Shinji uttered was:

"Baumkuchen."

Shinji froze. He had not meant to say that out loud.

He didn't know what to expect, but they looked at him in confusion. A few raised eyebrows, several frowns and some tilted heads. Was his pronounciation off? He crossed his fingers and hoped that wasn’t a slang for something offensive.

But then the commander let out a bark of laughter. It was a look Shinji did not expect given the tensed frown he was wearing just moments ago. A few others followed with weak bemused chuckles, and the nervous anticipation dissipated. Perhaps it was the bewildered and slightly panicked expression on his face which made it a little more ridiculous, but they seem to view him less of a threat.

Well, if he couldn’t fight them, join them.

"Ich..." Shinji dug deep into the realms of his mind to anything and everything which was related to the language. "...bin Shinji Ikari."

“Shinji Ikari.” The commander repeated, his voice deep and gruff.

A faint whistling of wires retracting caught his attention. The soldiers were back. As they approached the wall, the wires snapped out of the wall and momentum pushed them past the ledge to land smoothly onto the top.

Shinji couldn't help but be overwhelmed with amazement. He swore this was something he saw from a manga he browsed through somewhere before.

He noticed an unfamiliar face among them. It wasn't that he recognised every single face, but her unmistakable Oriental features immediately set herself apart from her fellow Caucasian soldiers.

She looked up and calm grey eyes bore straight right into his in a piercing gaze. Her black hair blew lightly in the wind. Silent and somehow deadly, Shinji was reminded of quiet moonlit night. The commander muttered some instructions at her. She nodded, but her eyes never left Shinji. Fidgeting nervously, he expected the worst.

But then she opened her mouth, and said:

" _ Do you understand me? _ "

It wasn't a completely fluent sentence of Japanese. Perhaps from a lack of exposure and practice. But he understood her just as well, and that was all that mattered. " _ Yes. _ "

A hush of relief echoed among the soldiers, though tension lingered in the air. The communication barrier was broken, but that meant any niceties was no longer required in order to understand the other.

" _ What's your name? _ " The girl asked.

" _ Ikari Shinji. _ "

She turned to the commander to translate Shinji's words. The commander nodded his affirmation as to what Shinji had said with his limited German vocabulary.

" _ W-What's yours? _ " Shinji asked back.

She looked at him, considered for a moment and said, " _ Mikasa Ackerman. _ "

She waited for Shinji to process the name before continuing. " _ Where are you from and why are you here? _ "

" _ I'm from Japan and I don't know why I'm here. _ " Shinji contemplated if giving away confidential details of the Angels to civilians would break the law and get them in trouble, but then again this wasn't his world. NERV could screw itself for all he cared anyway. " _ I was fighting an Angel when it brought me here. I think I'm not from your world. _ "

A perplexed look crossed Mikasa's face. " _ What are 'Angels'? And what do you mean by you're not from our world? _ "

Shinji scratched the back of his neck. " _ Angels are, uh, powerful extraterrestrial beings which attack us. I'm not sure why, though. And I've never seen those things outside before. What are they? _ "

" _ They're Titans. They attack and eat humans. _ "

Shinji visibly flinched. If he were out in the fields without the protection of Unit 01, he would be in deep trouble. Not to mention, they looked so much like humans yet act nothing like them. Just  _ what  _ were they?

" _ But what is this thing? _ " Mikasa scanned the purple giant, scepticism written over her face.

" _ Oh, this? _ " The pilot looked down. " _ It's an Evangelion. We use this to fight the Angels. _ "

The commander spoke to Mikasa, who then proceeded to translate what Shinji had told her thus far. As expected, he was just as confused as Mikasa. Shinji could empathise. If anything, he admired the man for being so calm despite seeing the metal giant for the first time in his life. Shinji wasn’t really that composed when he saw Unit 01.

Granted, Shinji was ordered to pilot it right after and faced the risk of dying in a battle he never knew existed.

“ _ Ikari. _ ”

Shinji snapped out of his thoughts and looked down to face Mikasa. “ _ Y-Yeah? _ ”

“ _ I will ask you one question. Do you intent to hurt us? _ ”

“ _ Wha- _ ” Shinji blinked, “ _ Why would I do that? I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just ended up here for no reason and I just want to get back to where I came from. _ ”

He noticed Mikasa’s shoulders relax by a fraction. Turning to the commander, she relayed what Shinji had said.

Upon hearing Mikasa’s translation, the soldiers seemed less worried. The commander looked up at Shinji. Shinji stared back, hoping he would finally be convinced he was of no harm. For goodness sake, he couldn’t even fight off a penguin.

The commander snorted and nodded at his soldiers. Shinji heaved a sigh of relief when they sheathed their blades, assured that he was in no danger for now.

They’re off to a rough start, but at least it worked out eventually. Shinji just hoped that life would be kind to him and let him return back to Misato, Rei, Asuka and Kaworu and everyone else at Tokyo-3.

But he supposed he wouldn’t have ended up in this pile of mess if life was kind to him in the first place.

Reality sucked.

**Author's Note:**

> This is such a strange crossover, but I couldn't help but think that Shinji could learn something if he's transported to a universe like Attack on Titan. We all hope that putting Shinji in an AU where there is no danger would make him a happier person, but I wonder if having him share this pain with people who might not undergo the same experience, but would still understand him, help him as well?


End file.
